When Bita Dayhoff first became president in October 2009 of the Community Action Council, the food bank for Howard County, she was not pleased with what the organization was giving to its clients. She felt it was not providing a sufficient amount of healthful food choices, so she made it her project to change that.
"In the end, what was being put on their dinner table didn't include any fresh produce and vegetables, which is what I would have liked to have on my table for my children," Dayhoff said.
She decided the organization could offer better food options, so she set out to look for land where the CAC could grow its own vegetables. She reached out to the Department of Parks and Recreation, and ended up with five plots in the Long Reach Community Garden as part of a recent expansion.
Howard County has three community gardens: Long Reach and Elkhorn in east Columbia, and Westside in west Columbia. The Columbia Gardeners group manages all three sites, which until recently had about 500 plots rented to about 400 gardeners, with a waiting list of about 200.
On June 5, a dedication was held to add 47 plots to the Long Reach site, including the five for the food bank, and 57 plots to the Elkhorn site.
Once space had been professionally cleared at the food bank's site, Dayhoff and volunteers from Long Reach High School and Glenelg Country School worked to plant seeds and start the garden.
"I talked to David Weeks, an instructor at the Glenelg Country School. He said, 'Bita, if you get the land, I'll get the people,' and that's exactly what he did. … He got students from Long Reach and Glenelg. …They made this into a beautiful and bountiful garden," Dayhoff said.
"Since we got going on this project, I think it was one of the most rewarding projects that [the park] has done in a while," said John R. Byrd, the director of the parks department who helped with the expansion. "There wasn't a single negative side to this project."
Dayhoff said she hopes the food bank's garden plots will expand and that they will help alleviate some of the need for food in the county.
"My hope is that we will increase our acreage and that the students who have really helped us cultivate this land will turn it over to their families; and when they drive by over on 175, they will look over and say, 'I was a part of a beginning of bringing the community together, and making sure there is no hunger in Howard county,' " Dayhoff said.
The CAC encourages its clients to take part in the gardening.
"Another part of our mission is to increase self-sufficiency," Dayhoff said. "We're very hopeful that the clients who come to the food bank take part in our garden and put in it what they would like to have on their table for dinner."
"I've been president of Community Action since October. This was my first dream, and it has come true," she said.